Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Donald Trump brings shame upon himself and the nation
When you have a president who is a bully, fraud and liar, and who manifests those dismal qualities every day, if not every hour, there can be a tendency to eventually let things slide. You can't react to every new insult, to each new deception, to every lie. It's hard enough to count them. Why not save your silver bullets? Focus on the truly important stuff—like the obscene and costly giveaway that the Senate is at this moment crafting, using the tax code to funnel money away from the poor and middle class and toward the already wealthy.
But on Wednesday morning Donald Trump set an astonishing new low, even for him, retweeting to his 43.6 million Twitter followers a trio of odious anti-Muslim videos produced by a British hate group, British First, that has a record of misleading and vile anti-Muslim propaganda.
The three Trump shared were titled “Muslim migrant beats up Dutch boy on crutches!” “Muslim destroys a statue of Virgin Mary!” and “Islamist mob pushes teenage boy off roof and beats him to death!”
Whether they actually show what they purport to show is not the point—a standard technique of haters is to take one jarring crime, one reprehensible person, and use it to slur an entire community. The Klan did it. The Nazis did it. And now the president of the United States does it. It happens to be against Muslims, but in the past it was against Mexicans, women, Jews. Any group he feels he can get away with mocking for the benefit of his followers, who thrive on this kind of thing.
Again, nothing new. More of the thoughtless hate that got him elected, that excites the third of this country who are angry, fearful, and looking for someone to blame. Who need a bogeyman to justify their fear, like the 5-year-old who asks, "If there's no monster under the bed, then why I am afraid?"
But because we have seen it before doesn't mean we shouldn't cry out in horror now. Trump's actions this morning are a gross betrayal of what it means to be a patriotic American, or a person of faith, or a decent human being. It makes our country more imperiled, and provides succor and encouragement to every zealot, extremist and terrorist in the world. It is unethical and dishonest, both bad policy and bad strategy. It is Trump's three major deficiencies rolled into one: a bullying fraudulent lie.
Reaction has been swift—British Prime Minister Theresa May denounced Trump's reckless calumny as "wrong."
“British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents: decency tolerance and respect,” she said in a statement.
That is leadership. The British leader should be joined by anyone with a voice. No decent American can let it go unchallenged. Because if we do, it'll only get worse and worse. It already has gotten worse. Today's obscenity is worse than what came before, and if we don't want worse to follow, we need to make a stand. This is intolerable.
Donald Trump reveals, once again, the small, twisted bigot at the bottom of what he calls a soul. America is humiliated that we set such a petty, vain, cruel, brainless, hateful individual as our leader. We didn't all vote for him. But we all have him now. Denunciation is ineffectual and cold comfort, but must be done. This isn't who we are, but it's what we are becoming, unless we find a way to stop it. It is a fight every American should—no, must—commit ourselves to waging right now. Loud, strong and clear.
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Amen.
ReplyDeleteFor those of us who always wondered how Germany and Italy could fall to fascists, now we know.
From the WaPo article you linked to:
ReplyDelete“Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real, and that is what the president is talking about,” [press secretary Sarah Huckabee] Sanders told reporters."
In other words, it doesn't matter is something is a lie as long as it supports whatever Trump believes to be true.
Whatever Sanders gets paid, it's not enough. Or maybe too much.
More and more Donald Trump reminds me of the last days of Andy Kaufman's career: he kept pushing the envelope of funny to see if people would laugh at something that lacked every single element of funny. I expect that one day President Trump, after exhausting all the rhetorical means of not being presidential, will come out for a press conference in his jammies and bunny slippers. Somebody will salute; the rest can go to hell.
ReplyDeletejohn
I'm speechless.
ReplyDeleteArrrrgggghhh!!!!!
Thank you Neil. We need your voice. We need more voices to rise up against this continued lunacy.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, Republican members of Congress must realize Trump is endangering our national security with his sick behavior. This bigoted hatred cannot be tolerated from an American president. He won't stop, so others must step up to end this madness before we pay a price equal to events suffered by the acts of racist leaders from the past.
ReplyDeleteBut the Repubs won't say much to Dump, other than make a few noises. They fear his lashing out or pressure from the Breitbart gang.
DeleteI read this story on the Tribune website and then scrolled down to reader's comments. Kind of disturbing.
ReplyDeleteTom
Don't read comments. They can be following a story on a change in the bus schedule. There's a lot of crazy in the world.
DeleteEspecially don't read the Tribune's comments.
DeleteI can do you one better. I don't even read the Tribune. I get Eric Zorn on Facebook, and if there's anything else, it's news to me.
DeleteI know you're big on Facebook, but for me, between that and the Trib in the annoying department, it's a tossup.
DeleteI never read the Trib. I don't even know who Eric Zorn is. I know of readers they lost when they endorsed a 3rd party candidate for president rather than a Democrat. What were they thinking?
DeleteThere are only a few ways this shit show ends. impeachment ( unlikely) . the FBI arrests the president for criminal acts( impossible). he becomes incapacitated ( unforeseeable ). or the unspeakable, god forbid.
ReplyDeleteOne other possibility is he comes to his senses and understands his job is to do the business of the people. (preposterous).
None of these things will come to pass because of our outrage, nor speaking our mind. political action will possibly change the majority in congress and lead to a balance of power that could help to right the ship after the mid terms but I doubt it. we may just have to find a way to ride out the next three years and make this a one term presidency
Where are the protests? Trump Tower seems like a good spot but I'm not sure since it's not a government building, maybe that would be illegal. If we had an "I Hate Wetbacks Tower" or an "Upstanding Nazi Hotel" there would be protests there. I hope. Or action by city government?
ReplyDelete